1. Technical Field
This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-067656 filed on Mar. 27, 2013. The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-067656 is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a wiper device which wipes a nozzle formation surface of a liquid ejecting head, and a liquid ejecting apparatus including the wiper device.
2. Related Art
Hitherto, as a type of liquid ejecting apparatus, an ink jet printer which performs printing by ejecting ink (liquid) from nozzles formed in a liquid ejecting head toward a medium such as a sheet is known. In addition, in such a printer, typically, in order to maintain the property of ejecting ink from the nozzles, a maintenance device is provided (for example, refer to JP-A-2011-126129).
As the maintenance device, there is a device that includes a cleaning unit which wipes ink that adheres to a nozzle formation surface having nozzles formed therein, in a liquid ejecting head. In this case, the cleaning unit includes a carriage that is moved by a driving force transmitted from a motor, and a first reel and a second reel which are provided on the side surfaces of the carriage to rotate. In addition, a long cleaning tape is suspended between the first reel and the second reel.
In addition, in the maintenance device, in a state where a part of the cleaning tape which is suspended between the first reel and the second reel abuts on the liquid ejecting head, the carriage is moved by the driving force transmitted from the motor such that the ink is wiped off the nozzle formation surface of the liquid ejecting head.
However, in the printer described above, there may be cases where ink which is a dispersion liquid containing particles as a dispersoid is used. As an example of the ink, there is a pigment ink used when high-resolution printing is performed. In addition, when the pigment ink is used, pigment particles contained in the pigment ink captured by the cleaning tape during the wiping slide in the movement direction of the carriage with respect to the nozzle formation surface of the liquid ejecting head while being interposed between the nozzle formation surface of the liquid ejecting head and the cleaning tape. As a result, there is concern that the nozzle formation surface of the liquid ejecting head is damaged by the pigment particles and there is a problem of damage to the nozzle formation surface due to the wiping.
In addition, this problem is not limited only to ink jet printers and is common to a wiper device which wipes a liquid off a nozzle formation surface of a liquid ejecting head capable of ejecting liquid and a liquid ejecting apparatus including a wiper device.